FAYETTEVILLE - Totem Pole Artistic Director Rowan Joseph said Tuesday that veteran stage, screen and television actress Loretta Swit hit the ground running when she arrived early Monday at the famous regional theater in the mountains east of Chambersburg.

“I had been told that she was a workaholic,” Joseph said. “She flew in on the red-eye and got in at about 7:30 Monday morning and as soon as she got here she walked right into rehearsals.”

Swit later said that she slept in the car on the way from Dulles International Airport and took a little nap before heading for the theater.

For the opening performance of Totem Pole Theater’s 66th season, Joseph has brought in the Emmy-winning Swit, best known for her 11-year stint as Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan on the hit TV series “M*A*S*H, and co-star six-time Los Angeles Ovation Award winner, David Engel, a veteran of numerous Broadway and off-Broadway shows.

The play revolves around a formidable retired woman living in St. Petersburg, Florida, who hires a much younger, acid-tongued dance instructor to give her dance lessons – one per week for six weeks.

What begins as an antagonistic relationship blossoms into a beautiful friendship as these two people from very different backgrounds reveal their secrets, fears, and joys while dancing the tango, waltz, swing, foxtrot, cha-cha, and contemporary dance.

Swit and Engel actually began rehearsing over the telephone from their respective homes, nearly 3000 miles and three time zones distant, the two actors said.

“These two characters spar, bicker, and banter, whittling away at one another,” said Engel. “It’s not a romance…but it IS a love story. Every relationship has a foundation, and that constant bickering is ours.”

Swit works constantly, or tries too, and sees no reason to slow down, despite being on the shady side of 70.

“Life is an adventure, or it’s nothing,” she said.

Bloom said to the room filled with print and TV journalists and some Totem Pole staff: “You have no idea how lucky your community is, attracting people of this caliber.”

The stars both talked a bit about the life of inhabiting a character for a period of days, weeks, or months, and then moving on.

“It’s a very ephemeral business,” Engel said. “Seldom do you get to revisit a role.”

Swit said she always hopes to make the audience feel.

“You know, we are bombarded with endless information, endless news of shootings and bombings and one disaster after another. So we sort of seal ourselves away from feeling things…you numb yourself.

She added that when she is up on the stage putting her all into a role and she can see people in the audience weeping or laughing, she feels as though she has done her job.

Both Swit and Engel said that though they spend most of their professional lives performing in large venues, local it is local live theaters where the soul of performances lives.

"Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks" runs May 27 to June 12

For the third year in a row Totem Pole will offer any unsold seats one-half hour before each curtain for $10.00 each to anyone 16 to 22 with a valid driver’s license or ID.

Totem Pole will also offer two preview performances the first Friday evening and Saturday matinee of each subscription season production with all seats priced at $20.00. Tickets may be purchased online or by calling the box office.

Those interested in subscribing to the season or purchasing tickets for single shows may do so either on line through Totem Pole’s website at www.totempoleplayhouse.org or by calling the playhouse’s box office Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at ‪717-352-2164.